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Thursday, February 9, 2017 • APG News B7 ence if they were proficient on all the apps they had on their cell phones, and asked SOFTWARE how anyone could be expected to master Frompage B1 129 applications efficiently, which drew sustainment of software to enable current quite a bit of laughter. and future Army Warfighting functions in “The number one problem there, for the the execution of unified land operations. average field commander, is not knowing The Software Solarium construct ad- what [new and upgraded equipment] dresses the direction of a developing means to you, and we tell them in every strategy to manage software, which has [leader training] class, if you don’t know become an essential element of nearly every what this stuff does for you, that’s problem battle and business system in the Army. number one,” Anderson said. “Our biggest According to Army leaders, “It is a para- challenge related to readiness is training. If digm shift to recognize software systems as commanders won’t designate the time to critical ‘equipment’ needed to maintain focus on that, there’s no way you will be able overmatch in the Mutli-Domain Battle.” to operate. It’s that simple.” The reliance of software to enable Breakout sessions were conducted for warfighting systems across the Army, has U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY PHILIP MOLTER, CECOM each Line of Effort, and each session elevated its management to a key Army CECOM Software Engineering Center Director Medhat Abuhantash introduces the four provided near and far-term follow-on readiness focus. “The number one focus of Line of Effort breakout group chairs, from left Matthew Shoultz, Judith Pinsky, Michael actions for the Army. the Chief (of Staff of the Army) is on those Crapanzano and Mark Hosson, to the Software Solarium 2 audience. “The next steps are going to be to Soldiers that will be in the fight, to make ’crystalize’ the outputs from the Solarium. sure he or she have all of the training, all of technology overmatch in the evolving and The Solarium approached software as an Each of our teams provided an out brief on the resources, available to them to execute increasingly complex software environ- enabling capability of all Army systems and the four Lines of Effort. We’re going to take their missions,” LTG Robert Ferrell the ment. sought to provide policy and governance what we learned into a couple of different Army’s Chief Information Officer/G6 said. More than 400 people took part in recommendations concerning not only decision-making forums in the Army,” said “We’re looking at what’s currently aligned, Solarium II, more than doubling attend- software acquisition practices but also how Major General Bruce Crawford, command- and what’s missing, and what we’re doing ance from the first event. Unique to this to unify effort to deliver software enhance- er CECOM. “While we continue to socialize here today is looking at the gaps and seams Solarium was the inclusion of industry ments and protection patches to field units our efforts throughout the enterprise, we that we need to fill as we move forward.” partners from both traditional defense faster. This will help prevent units from know we have about four or five things that Software Solarium I, held in September suppliers but also non-traditional busi- operating on different software baselines, we would like the Army to tell us to do now. 2016, developed lines of effort to foster a nesses, such as CITI Group, who are also which could impact the ability to communi- There are some near term actions that can coherent approach to software growth in an grappling with software management and cate or share information. be taken and we’re going to brief those attempt to prioritize challenges associated cyber protection issues. Industry, academic “From the commander’s perspective, do formally to the leadership of the Army.” with cradle to grave software acquisition, and defense leaders and experts were able you have the tools and do you have the Among those proposed near term goals development, fielding, sustainment, and to candidly exchange lessons learned and information that you need to make deci- are development of Army execution orders even divestiture. Solarium 2 furthered that thoughts on future efforts, assisting in the sions in the right time and space or not? directing: the adoption of electronic patch construct by creating a “unity of effort” to formulation of specific objectives to sup- Now that’s the bottom line,” said Lt. Gen. management for tactical systems across affect near and long term change in how the port the Lines of Effort. Government Joseph Anderson, Deputy Chief of Staff, Army formations; the adaptation of a Army approaches software management, leadership included LTG Robert Ferrell, G-3/5/7. “Sometimes that’s pretty hard to software cost estimating model; and direct- specifically by working along these Lines of Army CIO/G6, LTG Joe Anderson, Army measure if there’s something you don’t even ing all future software license agreements Effort: Enabling a “More Defensible Net- G3/5/7, MG Bruce Crawford, Commander know you should be getting.” be acquired in the name of the “Army” work;” Driving Army-wide efficiencies in CECOM and many representatives from Anderson took the audience to task, thereby allowing transferability of licenses the software lifecycle; Optimizing Army organizations such as the Office of the offering one detailed example of why the across programs and activities. “What we’d software development and sustainment Secretary of Defense, U.S Navy, U.S. Air software challenge can be pretty over- like to do is get into the process of policy and oversight; and Developing the Force, National Security Agency, Special whelming. Some systems which enable institutionalizing what we’ve learned,” said optimal government and contractor work- Operations Command and the U.S. Military critical data to the warfighter have up to129 Crawford. force mix. The underlying goal: maintain Academy. applications or “apps.” He asked the audi- Radio Waveform, or SRW, network. same plan.” “The TCE will operate across any The Fort Dix test yielded typical SRW TCE network, but we chose to live test with related challenges with varying levels of Frompage B1 tablets on the lower-bandwidth RF net- throughput, latency, and packet loss untethered commanders with the same or work should that be the only network CERDEC anticipates that TCE will better capabilities than they had with their available to users,” said Andy Harned, undergo live Soldier testing in early FY 2018 stationary command post networked mis- CERDEC CP&I TCE project lead. at the Army’s National Training Center, sion command systems.” Engineers traveled on foot and in vehi- Fort Irwin, California. Users will have the The TCE is one of many CERDEC cles throughout the ranges’ densely wooded opportunity to test TCE over NTC’s new science and technology efforts that could areas to evaluate TCE’s two modes of wireless range network, and based on lab help the Army achieve its modernization collaboration: Mirror and Extend. testing using a 4G network, CERDEC goals. “Leaders can use mirror mode when they engineers expect to see exceptional net- “We believe that the TCE will provide and their staff are geographically dis- work throughput. the vital technologies required for our persed,” Harned said. “All can view the Following the NTC test, TCE will be the future forces to conduct mission command same map, and all can immediately see software component of CERDEC CP&I’s in expeditionary environments, which will U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY SUSAN SODON, CERDEC changes to the map, such as new graphics, Expeditionary Mission Command Science be critical for staying ahead of our ad- Ta n Truong and Andrew Chan, CERDEC no matter who makes those changes.” and Technology Objective, or EMC STO, versaries,” Carpenter said. CP&I engineers, establish communications The extend mode allows co-located also in FY 2018. CERDEC initiated the EMC Running on the Android Operating between the Solider Radio Waveform, or users out in the field to place their tablets STO to develop Commander-focused mis- System, the TCE allows users to collaborate SRW, network and a commercially available together in a grid to form one, large screen sion command technology demonstrators across platforms such as tablets, laptops, tablet over the Ta ctical Computing Envi- as an alternative to the large video displays that will inform requirements for the U.S. and other mounted and dismounted com- ronment, or TCE. The TCE provides com- traditionally found in fixed command posts. Army Training and Doctrine Command, or puting devices, and is network agnostic, manders and staff with the ability to se- CERDEC engineers successfully employed TRADOC, which will meet the Army’s which allows it to operate across varying curely collaborate using multiple comput- the extend mode down on the ground and Command Post 2025 vision, approved in bandwidth levels. ing devices from brigade down to the edge. on the hoods of military vehicles. the fall of 2015. CERDEC engineers also incorporated “It’s like fitting the pieces of a puzzle “Expeditionary mission command isn’t voice command capabilities and are cur- ing the traditional mouse and keyboard together to create one large map-based just about the physical aspects of a com- rently working on additional Advanced peripherals. planning environment for Soldiers,” said RJ mand post; you have to make the software Human-Computer interfaces such as CERDEC recently transported the TCE Regars, CERDEC CP&I test